How To Cleverly Organise Cosmetics Samples

How do you store your beauty samples? It’s not just a beauty blogger problem. Discover my storage ideas and see how I organise my samples.

A decent system of cosmetics samples organisation and storage will prevent the out of sight, out of mind, oops-it-went-bad situation and allow you to test your new beauty products comfortably.

I want to share with you a simple process and a few organising tips and show you how I sort and store (and display) my makeup and skincare samples. If you’re finding yourself hoarding them, check out my organising hacks for sample hoarding prevention first.

January is the perfect month for brand spanking new organising and storage habits!

How To Sort Your Samples

STEP ONE. Take your pile of samples and trash those with expired best-before date.

STEP TWO.Trash the samples that contain ingredients you don’t want or are allergic to. Now, some people will advise you give those to a friend – but I suggest doing so only in the case you know for sure they want to try this specific product, because however bad wasting is, friends are not trash bins.

STEP THREE.Take what’s left of your treasures and pick samples of products you already know and like, and put them someplace where you’re sure to use them. I’m thinking soap and shower product, hand lotion, deodorant, dental care – anything you could use for your travel beauty case.Image: a manageable pile.

STEP FOUR – THE FINAL STEP.
Now, with your sample pile hopefully considerably more manageable, sort products according to your standard beauty routine. For example, my categories are minimalistic. Also I never try hair care samples because my hair is too long and too thick for the tiny amount of product in those minuscule sachets, so there is no hair care sample category. Perfume, if I get a nice clean product sample, goes into my skincare body category. So here are my categories:

Left to right:Colour cosmetics Skincare face Skincare body

Your categories can be just two or up to ten, if you’re very specific. Can you have twenty? I say, it depends on how many beauty products you’re sampling 🙂

How To Store Your Samples

So you know how many samples you need to store in how many different categories. Categories will be compartments in whatever storage solution you will find.

Now it’s time to decide whether you want your treasures on display or tucked away. Do you have a nice place where the storage won’t be in the way at all? A vanity table would be lovely – a cramped bathroom shelf would be terrible.

If your samples are going to be on display, you’ll want to search for a transparent storage solution that is nice to look at.

If your samples will sit behind wardrobe doors, you can reuse a sturdy, pretty box or several boxes and be done just like that; just make sure to put your samples somewhere you will actually see them often as opposed to tucked away behind thirty pairs of socks 🙂

My samples sit on an open shelf in a simple transparent acrylic “mini cabinet” with three drawers that I found years ago at a dm-drogerie markt I believe (check out bathroom accessory aisles where they sell magnifying mirrors, toothbrush mugs, cotton sticks boxes and cotton pad dispensers).

ONE LAST BIT OF ADVICE. Small binder clips are ideal to “reseal” opened sachets and to keep your storage nice and clean.

The best thing about my system is that it’s sitting right next to my beauty case and my skincare shelf, so I’m reminded to look t it daily when I choose a moisturiser, pick a make-up brush or think about what fragrance I want to wear. It helps me develop a habit of managing, organising and using the (few) samples that I either proactively order or decide to keep.

So, how do you store your samples?
Could it use a little re-organising?

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The BEAUTYCALYPSE woman wants to enjoy her glamourous beauty products and to satisfy her unique fashion sense – but she wants to be sure they will not harm her, other people, or the environment.

The BEAUTYCALYPSE man chooses healthy and organic skincare products and seeks the healthiest balance for his busy lifestyle.

Noticing each other and helping each other is not a blurry new age mantra, but words to live by: "Treat others like you want to be treated" is a classic - and BEAUTYCALYPSE readers don't want the price of their product choices to be death, destruction or intoxication.